Who Am I? (Mis)identity and the Polis in Oedipus Tyrannus

Oedipus’ major handicap in life is not knowing who he is; the parricide and incest come about as the result of this ignorance. What Oedipus is obsessed with is the question of ‘who am I?’ and ‘who is my father?’. With these questions in his mind (and on his lips) he arrives at the oracle of Delphi. Identity, however, is not only our relationship to the tree of genealogy; it is also about how we move in the public space, commanding respect, or failing to do so, and how we relate to our interlocutors in life. We define our identity in connection with all these; but overwhelmingly, in the case of the Greek polis, in connection with one’s identity as a citizen – defining the self in the polis is what lies at the kernel of this story.

The present book will focus on the question of identity in Oedipus Tyrannus, in contrast to the majority of other readings in modernity and postmodernity. Surveying a wide range of postmodern critical theories (including Lévi-Strauss, Taylor, MacIntyre, Irigaray, Butler, Foucault, Castoriadis etc) the author ‘follows’ the steps of the protagonist in the four ‘cycles of questions’ constructed by Sophocles in a quest to piece Oedipus’ identity together – in a long, painful, and intricate procedure of recasting Oedipus’ life into a new narrative.